Schwab Statement to Excel

Where Schwab keeps what, and for how long

Schwab publishes two different windows, and the difference between them is the reason statements still matter. On the Schwab Mobile app, statements and other documents are under More → Documents; on Schwab.com, under Accounts → Statements & Tax Forms.

History or statements: which to use

Inside the four-year window, Schwab's own transaction history is the most direct source for transactions. Statements are the better source when:

• The year you need is more than four years back but within the 10 years of statements.
• You need positions and values at a date — history lists transactions, not holdings.
• You need the document itself, exactly as Schwab issued it, for an auditor, an estate or a dispute.
• You are working from statements someone else downloaded and sent you, without access to the account.

Former TD Ameritrade accounts

Schwab says that TD Ameritrade history is now shown under your Schwab account number, along with your recent Schwab history. Older statements issued by TD Ameritrade still look like TD Ameritrade documents, though. Because FlowParse reads a statement by its tables rather than a fixed Schwab template, those older statements come out the same way — summary, positions and activity on separate sheets — so a span of years that crosses the move can sit in one workbook.

Trade confirmations next to statements

Schwab keeps trade confirmations for up to 10 years, in the same place as statements. The two answer different questions. A statement tells you that a trade happened in the period and what it did to the account; a confirmation is the record of that single trade, issued when it was executed.

When a figure on a statement is in question — the price you bought at, a fee, the settlement date — the confirmation is the document to look at. Keep the converted statements as the year-long view, and go to the confirmation for the detail of any one trade.

Estates, closed accounts and old years

The cases where statements matter most are the ones where nobody can simply log in and download history: an executor gathering a parent's accounts, an accountant asked about a year that has dropped out of the four-year history window, or an account that was closed and transferred elsewhere. In each case what exists is a stack of statements, often a mix of downloaded PDFs and printed copies.

Converting them gives you each year's holdings and activity in a form you can total and search, with every figure still exactly as Schwab printed it. Keep the PDFs alongside the workbook: the workbook is for working, the statement is the evidence.

Several Schwab accounts

A brokerage account, an IRA and a second account for a specific goal each have their own statements and, for the retirement account, their own tax rules. Convert and merge them one account at a time, with the account number in the file name, so a year of activity for one account never mixes with another's. For an overall picture, take the closing positions from each account's last statement of the year onto one summary sheet, rather than stacking all the activity together. That keeps the retirement account's contributions and withdrawals out of the taxable account's figures.

How a brokerage statement comes out in Excel

A brokerage statement is not one table but several: a summary, the positions you hold, what happened during the period, and often realised gains or an asset-allocation breakdown. Flattening all of that into one list would mix market values with cash movements. So each table keeps its own sheet and its own columns, named the way the statement names them.

Checking your 1099 against the statements

The year-end tax form is the document your return is built on, and it is usually right. When it is not, or when a figure on it surprises you, the monthly statements are where the answer is. A check that takes an evening:

• Convert every statement for the tax year — all twelve months, or all four quarters — and merge them so each table sits in one sheet across the year.
• On the activity sheet, filter to dividends and total them. Compare with the dividend total on the 1099. A gap is usually a dividend paid in January for the previous year, or one reclassified after year-end.
• Do the same for interest, and for sales: every sale on the 1099 should appear as a sale in the activity, on the same date and for the same proceeds.
• Look for activity with no counterpart on the form — a transfer between your own accounts, a reinvestment, a corporate action — and make sure you know why it is not there.
• Keep the workbook with the return. If a figure is questioned later, the line behind it is one filter away.

Three spreadsheet mistakes with brokerage data

Once brokerage statements are in Excel, the same three mistakes come up again and again. Each one produces numbers that look plausible and are wrong.

Adding up holdings across months. A holdings table is a snapshot: the value of everything at one date. Twelve monthly snapshots stacked in one sheet do not add up to anything — summing them counts the same shares twelve times. Use the last snapshot for a year-end value, and compare snapshots side by side rather than totalling them.

Counting reinvested dividends twice. When a dividend is reinvested, the statement usually shows two lines: the dividend coming in, and a purchase of shares with it. Both are real, but only the dividend is income. Totalling every positive line as income, or every purchase as new money invested, double-counts.

Treating transfers as gains or losses. Money moved from your bank, or between two accounts at the same broker, shows up as activity. It is not income and not a loss — it is the same money in a different place. Filter transfers out before you total anything that is supposed to mean performance or income.

What this does not do

Two limits are worth knowing before you upload. First, there is no QuickBooks, OFX or Xero file for a brokerage statement: those formats describe bank transactions, and a statement full of positions and trades does not map onto them honestly. You get Excel and CSV. Second, the figures are kept as the broker printed them — FlowParse does not compute cost basis, wash sales or tax lots for you. For a tax return, the broker's own 1099 remains the document of record; the converted statements are what you use to check it, analyse it, or hand the detail to an accountant.

It also does not value anything. Market values, prices and gains are whatever the broker printed on the statement date; nothing is refreshed with today's prices, converted between currencies or recalculated. If a figure on the sheet differs from what you see in the broker's app today, the statement is not wrong — it is a record of that date, which is exactly what makes it useful as evidence.